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Philosophy Faculty Reading List and Course Outline 2014-2015 Part Ib Paper 05: Early Modern Philosophy
Philosophy Faculty Reading List and Course Outline 2014-2015 Part Ib Paper 05: Early Modern Philosophy
2)
3)
4)
Acquire some sense of how the positions on different topics relate to each other.
Engage closely and critically with some of the ideas and arguments studied.
Develop their ability to think independently about the issues presented, through
study of the set texts and, where appropriate, comparison of them with modern
positions.
Preliminary Reading
SYLLABUS
Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Books I and II.
Leibniz, Discourse on Metaphysics and The Monadology and New Essays on
Human Understanding.
Berkeley, The Principles of Human Knowledge, and Three Dialogues between
Hylas and Philonous.
Hume, Treatise of Human Nature, Book I and Appendix.
Some comparative questions may be set.
GARBER, Daniel, and Michael AYERS, eds., The Cambridge History of SeventeenthCentury Philosophy. 2 vols. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998). Also
available online at: Vol. 1: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521307635
and Vol. 2: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521572330. [This is not an
introductory work, but it will give you a good sense of much of the field and also
contains a large bibliography]
NADLER, Steven, ed., A Companion to Early Modern Philosophy (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2000), chs. 18, 24, 29 & 32. Also available online at:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/book/10.1002/9780470998847.
The following introductory texts may be useful:
COURSE OUTLINE
In the wake of the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century the Early Modern period
saw intensive work on knowledge and scepticism, and on the nature of thought and its
ability to represent reality. As well as representing the world we also act in it, and the
nature of agency, motivation, choice and the explanation of action is a further common
theme discussed by philosophers in this period.
Offered for study are central texts by some of the most important Early Modern thinkers.
They comprise Leibniz, often referred to as the rationalist, who stressed the power of
reason as the basis for our knowledge of nature and its properties. They also include
Locke, Berkeley and Hume, often referred to as the empiricists, who regarded
knowledge as ultimately derived from experience and who consequently faced the
problem of the limitation of knowledge. The course provides an opportunity for students to
develop a critical understanding of some of the most important ideas and arguments of
these philosophers, and of the relation of their positions to one another.
Prerequisites
BENNETT, Jonathan, Locke, Berkeley, Hume (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971).
COTTINGHAM, John, The Rationalists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988).
GRAYLING, A.C., Berkeley: the Central Arguments (London: Duckworth, 1986).
WOOLHOUSE, Roger S., The Empiricists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998).
READING LIST
The set texts are required reading. Items marked with asterisk* are a good place to start.
GENERAL INTRODUCTIONS
*GARBER, Daniel, and Michael AYERS, eds., The Cambridge History of SeventeenthCentury Philosophy. 2 vols. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998). Also
available online at: Vol. 1: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521307635
and Vol. 2: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521572330.
*NADLER, Steven, ed., A Companion to Early Modern Philosophy (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2000), chs. 18, 24, 29 & 32. Also available online at:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/book/10.1002/9780470998847.
None
General and Comparative Readings on Locke, Leibniz, Berkeley and Hume
Objectives
Students taking this paper will be expected to:
1) Acquire a detailed knowledge of some of the arguments contained in the texts
studied.
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*BENNETT, Jonathan, ed., Learning from Six Philosophers (Oxford: Clarendon, 2001).
Also available online at: www.oxfordscholarship.com.
BENNETT, Jonathan, ed., Locke, Berkeley, Hume: Central Themes (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1971).
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CRAIG, Edward, The Mind of God and the Works of Man (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1987). Also available online at: www.oxfordscholarship.com.
JAMES, Susan, Passion and Action: The Emotions in Seventeenth-Century Philosophy
(Oxford: Clarendon, 1997). Also available online at: www.oxfordscholarship.com.
LOEB, Louis E., Continental Metaphysics from Descartes to Hume (Ithaca, NY: Cornell
University Press, 1981).
NADLER, Steven, ed., Causation in Early Modern Philosophy (University Park, PA:
Pennsylvania State University Press, 1993).
POPKIN, Richard, The History of Scepticism from Erasmus to Spinoza. Rev. ed.
(Berkeley, CA: California University Press, 1979).
VESEY, Godfrey, Idealism Past and Present (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1982).
WOOLHOUSE, Roger S., Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz: The Concept of Substance in 17th
Century Metaphysics (London: Routledge, 1993).
WOOLHOUSE, Roger S., The Empiricists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988).
YOLTON, John W., Perceptual Acquaintance from Descartes to Reid (Oxford: Blackwell,
1984).
Online Texts
JOLLEY, Nicholas, ed., Locke: His Philosophical Thought (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1999).
LOWE, E.J., Locke on Human Understanding (London: Routledge, 1995).
MACKIE, J.L., Problems from Locke (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1976). Also
available online at: www.oxfordscholarship.com.
NEWMAN, Lex, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Lockes Essay Concerning Human
Understanding (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007). Also available
online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521834333.
ROSA, Raffaela. 'Lockes Essay, Book I: The Question Begging Status of the Anti-nativist
Arguments'. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 69, no. 1 (2004): 37
64.
TIPTON, I.C., ed., Locke on Human Understanding (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1977).
YOLTON, John, Locke and the Way of Ideas (London: Oxford University Press, 1956).
LEIBNIZ
Unmodified versions of the texts by Locke, Leibniz, Berkeley and Hume may be found at
Carl Mickelsens website: www.class.uidaho.edu/mickelsen/readings.htm.
The Complete Works and Correspondence of David Hume are available online at:
http://p.m.nlx.com.
LOCKE
Set Text
LOCKE, John, Essay Concerning Human Understanding, edited by P. Nidditch (Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1975), Books I and II. Also available online at:
http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/l/locke/john/l81u/contents.html.
Secondary Reading
*AYERS, Michael, Locke: Epistemology and Ontology. 2 vols. (London: Routledge, 1991).
*AYERS, Michael, Locke: Ideas and Things (London: Phoenix, 1997).
BENNETT, Jonathan, Learning from Six Philosophers. Vol. 2 (Oxford: Clarendon, 2000).
Also available online at: www.oxfordscholarship.com.
CHAPPELL, Vere, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Locke (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1994). Also available online at:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521383714.
CHAPPELL, Vere, ed., Locke (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998).
DOWNING, Lisa, 'Locke: the primary and secondary quality distinction', in R. Le
Poidevin, ed. The Routledge Companion to Metaphysics (London: Routledge,
2009), pp. 98- 108.
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Set Texts
LEIBNIZ, Gottlob W., Discourse on Metaphysics.
LEIBNIZ, Gottlob W., The Monadology. [Can be found in his Philosophical Writings,
translated by R. Francks and R.S. Woolhouse, (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1998), and in other collections also]
LEIBNIZ, Gottlob W., New Essays on Human Understanding, translated by P. Remnant
and J. Bennett (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981). [Especially books
1 and 2]
Related Texts
LEIBNIZ, Gottlob W., The Leibniz-Arnauld Correspondence, translated by H.T. Mason
(Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1967).
LEIBNIZ, Gottlob W., The Leibniz-Clarke Correspondence edited by H.G. Alexander
(Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1970).
LEIBNIZ, Gottlob W., Philosophical Papers and Letters, translated by L.E. Loemker
(Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1956; 2nd ed. Dordrecht: Reidel, 1969).
Secondary Reading
*ADAMS, Robert M., Leibniz: Determinist, Theist, Idealist (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1999). Also available online at: www.oxfordscholarship.com.
*ANTOGNAZZA, Maria R., Leibniz: An Intellectual Biography (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2009).
*BROAD, C.D., Leibniz: An Introduction, edited by C. Lewy (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1975). [An older book, but still a useful introduction]
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Secondary Reading
*FOGELIN, Robert, Berkeley and the Principles of Human Knowledge (London:
Routledge, 2001).
*GRAYLING, A.C., Berkeley: The Central Arguments (London: Duckworth, 1986).
*WINKLER, Kenneth P., Berkeley: An Interpretation (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989).
ATHERTON, Margaret, 'Berkeley's Anti-Abstractionism', in E. Sosa, ed., Essays on the
Philosophy of George Berkeley (Dordrecht: D. Reidel, 1987), pp. 85102.
BENNETT, Jonathan, ed., Learning from Six Philosophers (Oxford: Clarendon, 2001).
Also available online at: www.oxfordscholarship.com.
BOLTON, Martha. B., 'Berkeley's Objection to Abstract Ideas and Unconceived Objects',
in E. Sosa, ed., Essays on the Philosophy of George Berkeley (Dordrecht: D.
Reidel, 1987), pp. 60-81.
DANCY, Jonathan, Berkeley: An Introduction (Oxford: Blackwell, 1987).
FOSTER, John, and Howard ROBINSON, eds., Essays on Berkeley: A Tercentennial
Celebration (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985).
PITCHER, George, Berkeley (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1977).
STONEHAM, Tom, ed., Berkeley's World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).
TIPTON, I.C., Berkeley: The Philosophy of Immaterialism (London: Methuen, 1974).
URMSON, J.O., ed., Berkeley: Past Masters (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982).
WARNOCK, G.J., Berkeley. 3rd ed. (Oxford: Blackwell, 1982).
WINKLER, Kenneth P., ed., The Cambridge Companion to Berkeley (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2005). Also available online at:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521450330.
HUME
Set Text
*HUME, David, A Treatise on Human Nature. One recommended edition is edited by L.A.
Selby-Bigge, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978), Book 1 and Appendix.
BERKELEY
Related Texts
Set Texts
*HUME, David, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. Also available online at:
http://lib.myilibrary.com/?id=116084.
*HUME, David, A Treatise on Human Nature, Books 2 & 3.
Related Texts
BERKELEY, George, New Theory of Vision. [Any edition]
BERKELEY, George, Philosophical Works (London: Orion, 1993).
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Secondary Reading
*ALLISON, Henry, Custom and Reason in Hume: A Kantian Reading of the First Book of
the Treatise (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008). Also available online at:
www.dawsonera.com.
*BAIER, Annette, A Progress of Sentiments. Reflections on Hume's 'Treatise'
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1991).
*BLACKBURN, Simon, ed., How to Read Hume (London: Granta Books, 2008).
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